


Breakdown

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Agender Character, Angst, Established Relationship, M/M, Multi, Other, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7381003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Paladin's get separated after saving Allura, how do they all handle it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Shiro felt like he couldn't breath despite the rapid movement of his chest, the air being sucked in and then pushed back out. Seeing Haggar had brought back a lot of memories, he had kept it together while they escaped but when they lost control of the wormhole, and his lion had been sucked away, alone, he broke. His chest was painfully constricted, he could see, but also couldn't see anything. He kept seeing flashes of the Galra, of fighting in the Colosseum, of Haggar torturing him, Zarkon torturing him. Sendak's voice rang in his ears endlessly.

_"We're the same, you and I. Both of us, experiments looking for power."_

_"They won't accept you. You're a freak."_

_"What made you think you fit in anyways? You, the average one amongst them all, with a monsters hand."_

**_"Once a Galra, always a Galra. You were an exceptional fighter."_ **

Briefly he realized his Lion was headed towards a planet, they were going to crash, he needed to get control. The thought was gone before it ever finished forming, replaced by Haggars voice.

_"I made you strong and this is how you repay me?"_

_"You were weak without my help."_

_"You are my creation."_

_"You will obey ME."_

Shiro's vision was completely gone, he could only see black. A voice in the back of his head, not a Galra one this time, was yelling at him to pull it together long enough to avoid crashing, _then_ he could lose it. His hands wouldn't obey him though. He kept trying to move them, put them on the controls, pull the Lion up, he could sense how close they were to crashing through his Lion.

 _"This is it then? I die like this, alone on a planet, not getting to say goodbye to anyone, without saving Matt from the Galra?"_ He slumped against his chair, the only thing his body would do. Shiro had given up, he was tired, he hurt. The Lion crashed against the dirt.

\--

Keith didn't breakdown like Shiro, until he had pulled out of the wild spiral he had been doing. After the Lion was straightened out, and he realized there was _nothing_ around him, no planets, no Galra ships, not even stars. That was when he broke down. Being alone in the desert was one thing, he _chose_ to do that. Now he was in forced isolation, and it scared the fuck out of him.

He yanked himself out of the pilot's seat, pulling his helmet off at the same time and flinging it across the room, letting out a scream. Was this his fault? Had they been split up because of him? Coran had told him not to engage with Zarkon, but he hadn't listened. He was too caught up in his own pride, all he could think about was _if_ he managed to beat Zarkon, this would be over, they could all go home. That was a huge _if_ to run on, and in the end it didn't work, he was exhausted, his Lion was damaged, there was nothing in sight. He was completely and utterly alone. Keith didn't know if any of the others were alone, he knew Shiro was flung out near him, but that didn't mean anything with a wormhole. He hadn't seen where Hunk and Pidge were thrown, if they had been thrown out. He had no clue where the castle was, or how to find it. Keith didn't know where he was.

He walked around the pit for a few moments before lashing out and punching the wall, hard enough his knuckles split. He watched blood slowly well up and drip down, before punching it again. Keith barely felt the pain in his hand as he repeatedly attacked the wall with both fists, he finally stopped when he heard something in his hand _crack_ and looked at it. The index finger on his left hand was broken, but he couldn't feel it. He didn't feel anything but anger at himself. Keith turned and walked to the tiny cupboard that had a first aid kit to clean his hand up, deciding he _would_ find everyone, and he _**would**_  make this right.

\--

Lance freaked out the moment he woke up. His Lion had been thrown right into the orbit of a small planet, and was spinning around while it rotated around it, he couldn't shut the thrusters off in time.

"Shit shit shit shit SHIT." He swore, raking his hands through his hair and grabbing it. Lance knew he wasn't good on his own, sure his bond was strong, but he didn't know where he was, and he didn't have the map from the Castle. Figures, they get Allura back only to get separated. He was going to kick that stupid witch's ass when he saw her, both for hurting Shiro and Keith, and for separating them like this.

Lance was up and moving around, his head hurt and he didn't doubt he had a nasty bruise forming on the right side, he had fallen out of the chair when they had gotten separated, after he passed out. His thoughts strayed to Hunk and Pidge, they were smart, they could survive this. Hunk could cook anything and everything, Pidge would find a way to get back to the castle, they're the smartest person in the group after all. If Pidge could find the castle, they might be able to find Lance, and the others. So all that he needed to do was survive until Pidge pulled through. _**Fuck**_ that, he was gonna survive, but he was gonna try and find the others as well. Sitting around on his ass would get him nowhere.

He looked outside, the planet was small, possibly habitable, he would land in a minute. Lance walked around and did a quick inventory of the cockpit, small first aid kit, complete with emergency blanket, and rations of Paladin gumbo, along with snacks Hunk insisted on putting in everyone's Lion. He didn't have a lot, but he would find ways to get more food, and possibly a bathroom because he really needed to use one.

Lance sat back down in his seat, looking at the sensor. No Galra in sight. Good.

\--

Pidge kept a calm head, hoping the others would as well. As soon as they could, they pulled their Lion around to look and see if there was a possible way to get _back_  into the wormhole, but there was nothing. They clicked their tongue, but weren't surprised. Pidge knew it was a 1% chance. They turned and started looking around, a little surprised at what they saw. Four planets, orbiting around each other. That wasn't the weird part though, the weird part was that they were barely bigger than the Lions. Meaning they couldn't land there.

"Alright. Let's see if there's anyone on the sensors." Pidge said, flipping sensors on. Two small Galra ships, scouts, it looked like, were quite a ways away, close enough to show on their radar though. Pidge knew that the Galra wouldn't detect them, he had extended his sensors. He didn't see any lions, which was a slight disappointment, and his tracker burnt up, meaning he couldn't track them.... He pursed his lips, the planet might have what he needed, but to support life forms they would be tiny, he wouldn't be able to land his Lion, which meant going down alone.

His helmet and suit would provide oxygen, so they didn't need to worry about messing with any inhabitants air, if there was oxygen down there. They could leave the Lion and just take the small cockpit, the scouts couldn't take the Lion...

Pidge made up their mind, they would take the small cockpit, and leave the camo on the Lion. He had adjusted it so he could ping it's location. With a deep breath, they got ready to go down.

\--

Hunk groaned as he realized that the planet in front him was shaped like a pineapple, or maybe it was a giant pineapple floating in space. He didn't know. Either way, his stomach was growling. He was past the freakout point, the second they lost control of the wormhole he had freaked out, now he didn't feel anything. Sure, he was worried about everyone, but he didn't _feel_ it, he was totally numb, there was a buzz in his system that was normally present when he got like this, but aside from that? He felt nothing.

He got into the emergency rations and ate what looked like a granola bar, as close as he could make them without actual granola, then he flipped on a play list Pidge made for him. He knew that in the mental state he was in, trying to figure out a plan wouldn't do him any good, he had to wait until he could feel things before he did something stupid.

Hunk started doing karate chops around the room, with weird sound effects. He knew if Pidge was there, the sound effects would be better, Pidge made great sound effects, and music. Soon, he started feeling things again, the first emotion he felt was fear, which he shook off. Yeah he was scared of being alone, terrified of being lost _and_ alone, but freaking out wouldn't help.

He decided to scan the pineapple planet for life forms, to see if it was food. Lo and behold, there were none. Hunk got excited at that.

Then he woke up. Alone, next to normal planets, with no pineapple, and a _lot_ of anxiety. He gasped for air, managing to push his helmet off, sweat dripping down his face. _"I'm sweating like.. like... like a Galra!"_ Hunk thought, amused but still panicking. He sat down heavily, clutching his stomach and trying not to puke. It was five minutes before Hunk finally gave up and stumbled around to find a place to puke. After, he felt a little better.

He sat down next to the chair, taking slow deep breaths and trying to get under control again. When the deep breaths didn't work he did Yoga, that, of course, didn't work, why did people without anxiety say it did? They knew nothing. Finally he turned on a video he kept with him. It had his entire family in it, yelling and wishing him good luck, encouraging him to become the _best_ engineer. It made him laugh, but his anxiety was still overwhelming. He knew there was a bottle of anxiety medication in the first aid kit, he had been trying to save them for when he really needed them, not wanting to run out.

Hunk got up and walked over, popping the kit open and taking a pill, glad he had gotten them refilled the day before they all ended up joining Voltron. It took about a half hour to kick in, making almost all his anxiety fade away.

"Alright alright alright!" He said loudly. His first order of business would be to find out where he was, and then see if he could plot a course to somewhere near where Pidge had fallen out. Pidge had fallen out before him, so Pidge would be closer (he assumed) to the Galra base than he was, he needed a map. He would land on one of the planets and see if they could help him, if not.... well, guess work is always fun, right?

\--

Coran and Allura were struggling to control the castle, they couldn't force it out of the wormhole, so they ended up riding until the end.

"Allura! Please, strap yourself in! The gravity stabilizers are almost offline!" Coran called from across the room.

"Not yet, I need to get shields back online." She replied, the crystals were in alignment, everything seemed to be functional, so why wouldn't they work?

"Princess Allura, _please_ strap yourself in, thirty seconds until it's offline!" Coran repeated, strapping himself into the console, and throwing Allura a rope. With a sigh, she tied herself in, the mice climbing into a pocket on her dress.

There was a loud groan, and the gravity stabilizers shut down. Allura was glad Coran was there to help her and make her see sense, if he hadn't told her to tie herself in, she would have been flung to the ceiling. Abandoning the shields, she slowly started turning the castle right side up, relaxing when it was done.

It tool almost two more hours to get the Castle working correctly again, both of them were tired by the time it was done.

"Do you think they'll be alright, Coran?" Allura said, sitting against a panel. They had moved down to the kitchen, Coran had decided she needed _real_ food since being captured, as a comfort thing and a nutritional thing. Coran hummed softly.

"I think they'll be okay Princess, these may be the brightest Paladin's yet. Pidge managed to put camouflage on the Green Lion, Lance bonded immediately and has learned a lot, he's smart, Hunk is an amazing engineer, he can definitely do this, Shiro.... Shiro is an exceptional Paladin, possibly the most talented of them all," Coran slid a bowl of goo to Allura, sitting across from her with his own bowl. "They've all learned how to cook, I think they'll be just fine."

Allura didn't speak for a moment, focusing on eating. "Keith's Lion was extremely banged up, and Shiro wasn't in good shape.... I'm worried about them." It scared her, not knowing if they were even alive.

"Keith is headstrong and stubborn, he won't die, neither will Shiro," He took their bowls away. "Now, come on Princess, we need to rest for a moment, got to keep our strength up to find them!"

Allura smiled, and pulled herself up. "You're right, good night, Coran."

And with that, the entire Voltron team, aside from Shiro, had their plans made.


	2. Comfort food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Paladin's deal with their own seperate problems with being alone, Coran struggles with how to keep Allura's mood from plummeting.

"Shiro? Shiro are you there?" Shiro heard the voice crackling over the system, but ignored it. Too many times had he thought he had heard someone, only to find it was his mind playing tricks on him. He focused on getting out of the Lion, which was unresponsive.

"Shi-..." It crackled out, only to come back a minute later. "Keith, if-..... Reply." Shiro continued to ignore it.

"Ha!" He had managed to get the Lion to respond to him, and rushed back to the seat. Shiro had flipped communications off earlier so he wouldn't get his hopes up and think someone was actually there when he was just hallucinating. As he slid into the seat he briefly thought that maybe they should get padding or something inside their helmets. He pushed the thought aside to focus on digging himself out. Shiro didn't notice that Keith's voice had stopped speaking as he started maneuvering around, dirt falling around his Lion.

Shiro would never admit he was terrified inside his Lion, scared he would never get back to the others. He wasn't sure how he still had oxygen, sensors showed that the top of his Lion was still fifty feet under the surface, and the dirt had settled on top of them while Shiro was unconscious. He took a deep breath as his Lion finished righting itself, now slowly digging upwards. There was a low growling noise from his Lion as he worked his way up.

"Come on girl.... don't give up, we can do this." He muttered. It didn't take them long to reach the surface, shooting out of the ground as fast as they could, Shiro was almost blinded by the bright red light now streaming into the Lion. He closed his eyes tight, wishing the helmet had a dimmer setting.

"Shiro can you hear me?" Keith's voice was back, this time it was clearer than earlier. Shiro kept his eyes shut as he shoved his fingers in his ears- like that would help with a hallucination- still, made him feel better.

"Shiro, it's me, Keith. If you can hear me please respond." Shiro continued to ignore it. It wouldn't be Keith, his communications system was offline, how could it be Keith? His thought process was cut short when something slammed into his Lion hard.

"God damn it Shiro I know you're in there! Fucking respond already!" Keith sounded angry, and also worried. Shiro dropped his hands, opening his eyes to look outside. It didn't take his eyes long to adjust and he could see the red Lion now in front of him, but wasn't sure it wasn't a hallucination anyways.

"You aren't real. My communication systems are down." Shiro started slowly inching his Lion back. He needed out.

"I _am_ real, and Pidge made it so I can reboot certain systems in the other Lions if need be, communications was one of them." Keith replied. Shiro stopped moving his Lion.

"Pidge is here?" He asked hopefully, leaning forward a little. "Where are they?"

"No, no I haven't found them. This was a while back, when they added the camouflage to their Lion. Let's get out of here and talk in a bit, this light is giving me a headache." Keith's Lion turned and flew off, Shiro was still unsure if he was real or not, but he wouldn't mind leaving this damn red planet behind. He flew after Keith, closing his eyes a little.

\--

"Princess Allura! We've picked up a distress signal, it's nearby and seems to be of Altean origin!" Coran said, spinning to face the princess, who had changed out of her typical dress and was now in a uniform similar to the Paladin's. "It could be a Lion, should we check it out?"

She looked up and over at him, giving a sharp nod before going back to fixing the star charts, more than half was gone and she wasn't having much luck getting it up. Coran moved over to the controls so he could bring them to the distress signal.

\--

Lance didn't know what time it was, he wished he had a clock in the Lion. Since being flung away he hadn't slept, but he did find a bathroom...of sorts. Listen, when a dudes gotta go, hiding behind a tree on a random planet works just as good as a real bathroom. Until a giant bird jumps at you anyways.

Now he was tired, he hurt, he wanted to go home, back to his family on earth. The seat in the Lion wasn't comfortable, there wasn't a bed, all the stars looked the same and he hadn't seen a planet in a while.

He missed Shiro, he missed Keith. He didn't know if they were okay or not, Keith's lion looked pretty shitty, and Shiro looked like he had been chewed up and spat out, then stomped on. He wanted a bed. Lance didn't want to do this anymore. Trying to make the bad thoughts go away, he focused on old memories of everyone as he continued to fly. It didn't work, and only made him feel worse about everything. He let go of the controls to tug his legs up to his chest and wrap his arms around them as he watched more stars and space junk float past him. Lance wasn't good with the whole "absolutely alone in space" thing, he had never been this alone and he hated it.

He was jolted from his thoughts as something started beeping loudly, making him aware that someone was sending out a distress beacon. It wasn't out of his way, but he still didn't know if he should go to it.

"Ah fuck it, whats the worst that can happen?" He said to himself, wincing at how loud he spoke. Lance set his course to the beacon, arriving there shortly.

When he got there he wasn't surprised to see a Galra ship attacking a planet, he was however surprised to see the planet attacking back. There was a sort of net around the whole planet, and every few seconds it would shoot lasers at the Galra ship, but they weren't doing much. Lance chewed on his lip before shrugging and repeating his sentence from earlier as he flew in to attack the ship. He took out the cannon first and the got to work on the rest of it. He was even more tired by the time he was done. The blue paladin decided he hated fighting alone.

"Hello? Is there someone in the creature? Whoever you are that destroyed our enemies, we thank you, and invite you to our planet." A squeaky voice rang through his communications system.

"Repeat the message on all channels so we know they heard us." Another squeaky voice. Man did everyone down there have a squeaky voice like that? That would suck.

"I hear you," Lance moved to reply quickly, he was tempted to say squeaky and clear. "Loud and clear. My name is Lance, I'm one of Voltrons Paladins. Who am I speaking to?" He was hopeful that they had heard of Voltron, and if not maybe they had a star chart. It was a few minutes before they replied.

"My name does not translate well into your language. I apologize but we cannot allow you to land, we can run any supplies you may need to your... creature, as thanks for helping us." Lance frowned, he didn't like that response at all, but whatever, couldn't be too cautious with Galra around right?

"Alright. If you have anything drinkable that won't... mess with my thinking I would appreciate that, as well as some food." He didn't know how long he would be away from everyone else, might as well stock up a little while he could.

"Very well! We will send someone up soon!" There was a click and the squeaky voice was gone. Lance occupied the time waiting by bringing up a picture of the entire team and scribbling mustaches on people, they would disappear the second he closed the image.

A low rumble, not heard anywhere but inside his head alerted him to the approaching ships. Lance sat up straight to watch them approach, they were fairly small compared to his Lion, around the same size as a small fighter plane from earth.

"Thanks, Blue." Lance murmured as he stood up, grabbing his helmet and jamming it on. He made sure his Bayard was ready to use at a moment's notice, just in case. "Keep your guard up, we don't know if they're friendly." Was he talking to his Lion? Yes. Did it make him look like a fool? Probably, and he knew it, but he didn't care- it felt better than staying quiet right now. Oddly comforting, speaking to a weirdly magical sentient robot.

The transaction went good, Lance quickly found out he could only understand the aliens due to the built in translator in the Lion, meaning Alteans knew of these aliens and their language. The aliens (Which he knew now to be called "Hithers" and that made him giggle internally) were small and red, the tallest barely reached his hip. Made him feel taller, he liked it. They had given him around eight gallons of what looked like water and several packages of something vaguely resembling space goo. They didn't have a star chart, it was the first thing to be deactivated for power to be added to defense systems but gave him directions to a nearby system that might be able to help. He gave them a salute as they returned to their ship, waiting a moment before returning to the cockpit.

"Thanks for all your help, I'll see ya around." _Hopefully, don't get destroyed little guys._ He thought as he flew off.

\--

When Allura and Coran reached the beacon, all hopes of it being a Lion and Paladin died quickly. It was an old Altean message pod, that had been sent out when the war started to try and find any possible allies.

Allura suited up and floated out to it, hesitating momentarily before she shut it off. It couldn't help them now, but they could repurpose it on board. She dragged it behind her on to the castle. Upon getting it inside, she kicked it aside hard, frustrated. She had just gotten her Paladin's back, only to be yanked apart again.

"Ah... I am sorry, Princess Allura... I know you were hoping so much it would be someone..." Coran put a comforting hand on her back. Allura gritted her teeth, managing a nod.

"I think I'm going to go train for a little while. I'll see you in a bit Coran." She slid away to go to the training room, where she held second place for highest level reached against the bot, her father in first place. Coran watched her go quietly.

\--

"Well this is weird," Pidge stared up at their Lion, who had locked them out the second they had stepped out of their Lion on the planet. Pidge had been forced through the shield and now couldn't get back in. "Hey! Let me in!" They called up, cupping their hands around their mouth. After a few seconds of silence, they kicked at the wall angrily. _Why can't I get in?!_ Pidge sat down with their back to the Lion. Maybe it was the air? There was something fog like in the air, their helmet blocked out anything possibly life threatening.

Pidge sat for a few more minutes, deciding on their next plan of action. Step one, get rid of this shitty fog to see if it was messing with the Lion, step two, find a bush to use as a bathroom, after that they would explore a little, and if they still couldn't get into Green, well they were fucked.

Well over an hour later, the fog was still there, all the methods they would have used on earth didn't do anything to the fog. Pidge sat down and stared at the Lion, unsure of what to do. They allowed their head to fall forward and rest on the shield, crying quietly and wrapping their arms around their body.

"What am I supposed to do? I don't know what t-to do p-please help me," Pidge sobbed out, they hadn't cried when they first realized what had happened, they bottled it up and pushed on, just like what they did when they heard the news about Kerberos. "I-I'm sca-scared and alone and th-theres nobody around t-to help and you aren't even _responding_ please r-r-reply god please." In the back of their head they were almost glad nobody was around to hear them stuttering like this, Pidge hated their stutter. They continued to cry hard, nose stuffy and eyes squeezed shut as they did.

A low growl sounded out loud made Pidge go quiet, body still shaking as they slowly lifted their head and looked around, seeing nothing they turned their head to Green, who was now looking at them. Pidge stared for a moment, before noticing that one claw was sticking out of the shield, breaking it up enough that they could slip through. _Did she lose control of her shield?_ Pidge silently questioned, making their way to the claw and managing to squeeze in. The ran up to the mouth and crawled in, carefully making their way to the cockpit.

"Thank you Green... I'll get us out of here." Pidge whispered, patting a wall gently as the climbed into the seat. Something was preventing the Lion from moving or responding, and it was wrapped around the paws. Luckily, it wasn't stopping the thrusters from working. They smirked, wiping away tears as they fired them up, burning away whatever was holding them, the air pressure blowing the fog away as well. Pidge could see around them now, and what they saw was not good, it was one huge fucking plant monster and it looked pissed.

"Up up and away!" Pidge shouted as they shot into the air, narrowly avoiding getting grabbed again. The two quickly left the planet and let themselves float in orbit as Pidge did a scan around the surrounding system. Finding nothing helpful, Pidge set a course in the direction they hoped was north.

\--

Allura attacked the training robot relentlessly, already on level ten. She spun around it before cutting it's head off.

"Next level." She ordered, barely having broken a sweat, she had given Coran orders not to disturb her unless it was an emergency, and so far she had been left alone. Allura swiftly dodged the incoming attacks and soon went on offense.

She wished she could speak to her father, he might have some idea of what to do about this situation, but she couldn't speak to him. With a frustrated growl she cut the bot in half, ordering it to the next level.

\--

Keith had been nodding off when rapid beeps sounded throughout his Lion, alerting him to the presence of another Lion. He had set it to only alert him if another Lion was found.

He sat up straight and looked to find out who it was, his heart skipping a beat when he saw it was the Black Lion. Keith immediately set a course to the Lion, hoping to hell Shiro was alright. His boyfriend looked like hell when he had seen him last, his eyes were far away, like he was disassociating. Once close enough, Keith could see which systems were working and what wasn't, his communications needed rebooted, so Keith did that, thankful for the upgrades from Pidge.

"Shiro? Shiro are you there?" He called to the other Paladin, hovering outside the planet. The lack of reply scared the shit out of him. "Shiro are you there? It's Keith, if you can hear me, reply." He repeated the message, flying into the planet.

"Shiro can you hear me?" He repeated, his Lion now over where the Black appeared to be buried. Shiro was in there, and he was definitely conscious judging by the Lions ascending status. Suddenly, the Black Lion shot out of the dirt and flung itself into the air.

"Shiro, it's me, Keith. If you can hear me please respond." After no reply, he checked the status of Shiro's communications system. It was on and fully functional, so he was being ignored. That pissed him off and scared the hell out of him. Keith rammed his Lion into the Black Lion, hoping to get a reaction out of either of them.

"God damn it Shiro I know you're in there! Fucking respond already!" He couldn't stop the anger and fear from bleeding through his voice as he shouted, panic prickling through his body.

"You aren't real. My communication systems are down." Shiro's voice came over the system, sounding shaky as he inched backwards.

"I _am_ real, and Pidge made it so I can reboot certain systems in the other Lions if need be, communications was one of them." Keith replied. Shiro stopped moving his Lion. Keith breathed a quiet sigh of relief as he did.

"Pidge is here?" Shiro sounded so hopeful... it made Keith's chest hurt to let him down in his reply, saying that Pidge wasn't there. He suggested they leave the planet, and allowed a tiny smile to grace his lips when Shiro followed him.

Once the two were reunited, and off the red hell planet, Keith allowed himself to relax a little bit, hard to do in a metal chair though. Shiro was silent in his Lion, which Keith had expected him to be after all that happened.

"Shiro? Do you wanna stop for a minute so I can look over your injuries?" Keith asked softly, pulling his Lion so they were facing each other. The only answer he got was Black opening her mouth so Keith could enter. He quickly exited his Lion and jump/floated over to Shiro's, climbing into the cockpit. Shiro was in his seat still, hands clutching controls tightly as he stared blankly out the window. Keith grabbed the first aid kit and walked over, ducking under his arms and standing in front of him. He crouched a little, his knees against the chair as he sat it on the arm rests.

"Can you take your helmet off for me?" Keith whispered softly, Shiro's eyes flicked up to his face, and ever so slowly, he moved his hands off of the controls and tugged the helmet off, letting it rest on his legs. Keith took a deep breath, seeing the blood dried on his face. "I'm gonna clean the blood off." Keith told him as he got a small rag wet, figuring he might need a little warning before Keith did anything.

He slowly started cleaning it off, Shiro's eyes following his every movement. Keith focused on cleaning his face up so he could find where the blood came from. After a few moments he had all the blood cleaned off, and the injury was a cut above his eyebrow, almost as big as Keith's pinky. Keith's knees were getting sore, pressed into the chair.

"I'm gonna put some gauze on it alright?" Shiro's only response was to set his hand- his real hand, not the Galra one- on Keith's waist, simply letting it linger there. Keith smiled softly at him as he bandaged it up, he knew there would be other injuries, but this was the most important.

"You able to talk? Or are you..." He trailed off, struggling to find the right words when Shiro pulled him into his lap, Keith's legs dangling over the side of the chair. Shiro pressed his face into his hair, holding him tight.

"Alright..." Keith murmured, carefully readjusting himself so he was more comfortable. An unspoken agreement that Keith would stay in Shiro's Lion for the night.

\--

Allura was breathing heavy as she left the training room, chest rising and falling rapidly. She walked to her room slowly- taking the long route- her mice following her. Once she got to her room, she slipped out of her clothed and into the shower, turning it up as hot as she could stand.

Allura blamed herself for her Paladin's being split up, if she had done her job properly, she wouldn't have had to throw Shiro into the pod, she wouldn't have gotten captured and her Paladins definitely wouldn't have pulled such a _stupid_ rescue mission. Still, she was grateful for them coming to save her, she expected nothing less from them.

Her thoughts turned to how the barrier opened for them to escape. Did they simply break down, or did someone inside help them escape? Helping them would be an act of treason, and Zarkon would certainly kill whoever it was. Did they have a friend on the inside? Who in the Galra would help them, and why? For what reason would they?

Allura turned the water so it was cold, rapidly cooling herself down, and making it so the marks from the hot water were barely visible. Her Paladin's would be okay. They were picked because they were strong, and they could find their way home.

She stayed in the shower for a while longer, only getting out when Coran called her for dinner.

\--

Hunk had checked out two planets, the first was almost completely water, so he left it. The second had very friendly aliens, who were now teaching him how to cook some food with stuff native to their planet. He watched, totally entranced as they made (he thought) an omelette, with one huge ass egg, then gave it to him to eat. Hunk was patched through the Lion to understand what they were saying to him.

"Eat, preserve your strength brave warrior." The oldest in the room told him. They had been calling him _brave warrior_ since he landed. He kinda enjoyed it.

"Thank you," He started eating, eyes widening at the taste. "This is amazing!" He gasped out between mouthfuls, scarfing it down quickly. Laughter filled the room as he did so. Once finished he burped loudly, more laughter ensued.

"I appreciate all your help, but I have to be going, my friends are waiting for me." He stood up, hunched over a bit to not smack his head into the ceiling.

"Take this, it will lead you to someone, but only one, choose wisely." The elders voice was gravely as she spoke, handing him what looked like a compass. He thanked her again, then made his way outside to his Lion. They had given him food and water as well. Hunk waved as he flew away, thinking hard about who he should pick.

He could pick Lance, who was probably freaked out right now. They had been friends for one hell of a long time, and Lance was a good fighter.

There was also Shiro, who probably needed some form of emotional support and medical care. Hunk wasn't good at fixing up injuries however, Keith was better at that.

Keith might need help, or food or something, he was a good fighter and knew how to cook, he could take care of himself.

Pidge... Pidge didn't know how to cook much with the food they had out here, they were a good fighter, and his best chance at finding the others. Hunk made up his mind, he was going after Pidge.

The compass like thing lit up, pointing him in the direction of Pidge. He grinned and took the controls, moving his Lion so it followed the directions.

\--

Coran was worried about Allura, she seemed like she had lost all hope since the Paladin's disappeared. He watched her walk away to go train, unsure what to do to help her. He could try and find something left of King Alfor, but he didn't think there would be much.

With a sigh, he sat down to watch the sensors, hoping for something to come along and help them out.

Half an hour passed, then an hour. Coran stood up and made his way to the kitchen quickly. He would make Allura's favorite dish. They had something other than goo, but he had planned on saving it for something special. Now it would be used for comfort food, to hopefully help Allura cheer up a little.

It only took him thirty minutes to make everything, simple dishes is all they were, then he called Allura down and waited.

The door slid open with a hiss as she walked in, eyes widening at the different dishes.

"How..? We don't have the ingredients for any of these!" Shock displayed across her face. Coran grinned and led her to her seat, sitting her down.

"Why, I hid them! I was going to save them for something special, but comfort food is just as good!" He sat down near her, sliding her a bowl of soup. "Eat up Princess, we must keep our strength and morals up!" Princess Allura looked at him, tears in her eyes as she nodded, managing a small smile.

Soon, they had eaten everything he had fixed up for them, and Allura seemed a little happier now.

"Thank you, Coran. This really helped," She hugged him tightly. "I'm going to turn in for the night, you should as well." Coran hugged her back.

"Will do Princess, I'll see you first thing in the morning." He grinned and saluted her as they parted ways, headed to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I planned on updating this like once a week on a schedule but as you can tell, I am not good at that, at all.
> 
> Pidge is agender, by the way, they use they/them or he/him pronouns in this.


	3. NOT A REAL CHAPTER

Hi! As it said, this is not a real chapter, I apologize for lack of updates for the total of 2 (maybe 5) people waiting.

My phone wiped ALL the fics I was in the process of writing, I had over half of the next chapter done, but because of this I have to write again. This setback really upsets me and I've lost motivation to continue this, so it will be on hiatus until I am able to finish, sorry again ^^'


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